Crushed Garden Pea and Feta Cheese Salad

Written by:

Prep time:

10 min

Cook time:

Total time:

10 min

Portion/Yield:

Serves 4 a salad or side dish

Difficulty:

Easy

Growing garden peas is easier had I expected, if you play your cards right, do a bit of reading and apply a small amount of common sense then it’s easy and not much can go wrong. It’s trickier to deal with them once they are picked. Once peas are harvested you have a bout 6 hours before the sugars turns into starch and your amazing fresh peas looses their natural sweetens and colour. For that reason I do except that the guys who freeze peas knows best and it’s one of very few frozen ingredients I do not mind using in my cooking and I am not ashamed to admit that either.

If you are lucky enough to get fresh garden peas either form your garden, friends & family or from the market then this recipe is a treat. There is no cooking involved, all you need is a food processor or blender as pulse blending is required. A pestle and mortar can also be used ad would be just as effective. If you still fancy this recipe but only have frozen peas then all is not lost as I believe that you will get a very similar result, I would then use petit pois instead of garden peas as they are slightly smaller and intend to be a bit sweeter.

This salad is great to be serve as a side dish with grilled scallops, fish, meat or roast chicken and pork dishes. The recipe indicates that the dish is served at room temperature or chilled however you can prepare the crushed peas without the feta cheese, warm that gently in a small pan on the cooker and then serve warm with the feta cheese sprinkled over. Easy and Delicious!

Ingredients & Method

250g podded fresh new season garden peas

1tbs cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

Pinch of ground cumin

Juice and zest of one lemon

Sea salt and freshly crack black pepper

2 tbs chopped fresh mint

1tsp chopped fresh tarragon

Pinch of sumac

4 spring onions, sliced on a angle

200g feta cheese

Pea tops

Place the washed podded peas in a food processor or thermomix bowl, add the rest of the ingredients apart from the pea tops and feta cheese and season to taste. Crush the peas by pressing the pulse/turbo button a couple of times until the peas are crushed but not completely pureed. Your looking for the crushed peas to still have some half bits of peas. I like my crushed peas to have a course texture. Add 2/3rs of the feta cheese and stir into the salad.

Adjust the seasoning if needed.

Spoon the peas into the serving dish and garnish with the crumbed feta cheese, pea tops and a sprinkling of sumac.

Cooks Notes

Later on in the season when the garden peas are bigger and not so tender then quickly blanch the peas in hot salted boiling water for a few minutes and refresh in icy cold water. This will tenderise the peas without loosing the freshness. You can also use frozen peas as they are harvested and preserved in such a manner that they capture the freshness as if it was harvested that day. This recipes prefect as a side dish for a barbecue or picnic.